More Godly Women

I have a rare quiet few moments in my home and I'm taking advantage of it! I am going to continue on my quest to honor the Godly women in my life. Read through the descriptions of my Inspirational Influences and see if you have these women in your life.

Inspirational Influence #4 - The One With Wisdom

This is actually a description of two precious women in my life. I have two that I call immediately when I'm seeking Godly counsel on any matter. I think it's important to have women in your life that are of all different age groups. But it's crucial to have older women as a regular part of your life who have been there, done that and can help you figure out how to do something - or how not to do something. Wisdom can be attained at a very young age, but there is no substitution for age and life experience. These precious women also tell me, every single time, what I need to hear - whether I want to hear it or not. That's the measure of Godly wise counsel. If you are seeking counsel from those who will "tickle your ears" as Paul said, you are seeking the absolute wrong counsel. I pray every woman has at least one example of this in her life.

Inspirational Influence #5 - The One Who Perseveres

This incredible woman has been through some particularly tough times, yet is completely steadfast and incredibly encouraging. No matter what God allows in her life to refine her, she hangs on to Him and draws strength from Him alone and perseveres. He is her Rock, her Strong Tower and her Shelter. She just trusts Him, no matter what - and no matter how hard it is. If I can have even an ounce of her resolve and dedication, I will consider myself blessed.

Inspirational Influence #6 - The One Who Laughs

Being the 'class clown' that I am, this could easily describe me - but I have a friend who is just fun, no matter what. I believe with all my heart that if God created us in His image as He said He did, then He has a sense of humor and, as a result, gave us one. How on earth can we face some of the things we must face without a sense of humor? This friend is someone who I always receive a smile and fun moment from. She's got an incredible perspective on this crazy world we live in, and she embraces life with an outlook that few others possess. I am simply happy when I'm with her and I'm thankful she's my friend.

My quiet moment has come to an abrupt, brutal end, so I must go be mommy to my incredible boys. I hope reading this has blessed you and made you ponder the incredible women God has put in your life. And if you're in a season of your life where you feel like you don't have these examples, but need them, take it to the Lord, sweet one. Ask Him to give you these relationships and to give you the courage to cultivate them. He is faithful and He designed us to need relationship with others. He will provide if you simply ask.

Innocent Before Him

I want to continue to honor the Godly women in my life, but I'm taking a brief detour today. I am in the midst of studying the book of Daniel. I just finished Chapter 6. I wonder how many of you were taught (or assumed), as I did, that Daniel was a young man in this chapter? This is the chapter where Daniel is thrown into the lions' den.

If you're like me, you pictured a young man going to that room in his house and kneeling 3 times a day to the Most High God. You pictured a young man being framed by the satraps and commissioners so that he would no longer hold the king's favor. But do you realize that Daniel was about 81 years old during this chapter? I didn't know this until I was studying this time. Isn't it exciting how God always shows us something fresh when we turn to His Word?

As I was thinking about Daniel's age at this point in his very faithful life, I started thinking of my own relationship with God. Would I have the steadfast faith that Daniel and even Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego had? If you believe as I do that everything contained in the Bible is about a real event that involved real people, this should cause some self-reflection. These aren't fairy tales from some long-ago time about make-believe people. These were real, flesh and blood men and women of God that were put to the test and found faithful. If that doesn't make you shout 'Glory!' you better check your pulse, honey!

The phrase 'Dare to be a Daniel' takes on a whole new meaning when you realize that he's 81 facing those lions, doesn't it? Would you be that steadfast and true? Would you be "found innocent before Him" as verse 22 says? O fellow disciple, I want to be able to answer these questions with a hearty YES! Don't you?

Godly Women

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about all the incredible women God has given me the pleasure of knowing in my adult life. I'm going to dedicate this entry (and maybe some future ones - there are quite a few) to honoring these women in my life. I will not give them names, but rather, descriptions of the roles they play in my life. I'm going to call them my Inspirational Influences.

Inspirational Influence #1 - The One Who Prays

While this title could fit just about every woman on my list, because, to be Godly one must be in consistent prayer, there is one who simply prays - no matter what. And her prayers are like a sweet fragrance that fills your senses. When you are blessed with the opportunity to pray with her, you can almost feel Jesus' feet as you are bowed before them. There are no fancy words, no profound statements, she simply talks to the Lord like she knows Him.

Inspirational Influence #2 - The One Who Suffers

I have one dear friend who always seems to have one crisis or another in her midst. Yet she is the most humble, inspiring, encouraging woman I know. She certainly could be classified as 'The One Who Prays,' but I see her as so much more. In 1 Peter 4:12-16, we are told not to be surprised by our suffering, but to "rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ." This wonderful woman of God lives this principle before my eyes every day. And she truly counts it a privilege to get to suffer with Christ. What an incredible perspective to have!

Inspirational Influence #3 - The One who Weeps

Have you ever met someone who seems to be overly-sensitive and cries at, well, everything? That is my next influence. This precious woman of God cries at movies, commercials, weddings, birthdays, communion, music, and anything else that touches her. She cries when she's happy, sad, grieving, rejoicing, angry and depressed. She just cries. As someone who barely ever cries, I used to consider this particular gift a curse. But as I've come to know more about who God is, I've learned that crying is, indeed, a gift. This dear woman has a capacity to feel another's pain like no one I've ever known. She has compassion that runs deep and she really sees people through the eyes of Jesus.

Have you ever wondered why John 11:35 "Jesus wept" is so short? That's the only time in the entire Bible that we see Him grieve and we're given two words worth of insight into the moment. Having had the delight to know this sweet woman, I think I might have some idea why God was so brief in this verse. Crying with someone is so much more powerful than crying for them. To have that sort of compassion is to get a small taste of the love Jesus must have felt for all humankind while on Earth. Not everyone can handle that sort of gift. I know I can't.

That's it for now. Beloved, if you know someone in your life like those I've described, go thank God for allowing you the sheer grace to have them in your reach. Then tell her how much you love her.

Blessings.

Going Home Again

Please forgive me for the heaviness of my last post. I had a rare moment where I got caught up in statistics and facts. Don't fear. It probably won't happen more than once a year or so.

Over the past year, God has been teaching me that the only place a believer can truly be comfortable is wherever He is leading us. But therein lies the rub. It's an easy thing to say you want to follow Jesus. It is a far more complicated thing to actually know where He's leading you.

I had a chance to "go home again" in a way today and it was a frightening, unsettling, bizarre, yet completely wonderful experience. Ever been there? Thomas Wolfe once said "You can't go home again." I think he was right. And wrong.

Let me explain. If "home" to you is the way things used to be then, no, you probably can't go home again. Because circumstances and people are constantly changing. And if you go back to whatever it was - church, hometown, old relationship - with the expectation that things will be exactly the same, you will be very disappointed. Expectations are what cause us disappointment. One of the greatest truths I have come to know as a disciple of Christ is that the only thing that never changes is God Himself. And if you have expectations of any human you will, at some point, be completely disappointed.

But I must disagree with Wolfe at the same time I agree with him. Sometimes you must go home again. I discovered today that, indeed, things were not the same. Additionally, there were loose ends that I left unraveling everywhere in my heart. I needed to go home to realize this. I could have spent the rest of my life pushing those issues down in my heart, but they would be no more healed than they were when I left. And it's not within human power to mold my heart. That's a work that must be done by God alone. But sometimes you need to be in the thing to accept that fact.

God is bigger than any past experience you or I have. He can handle it and He's waiting for you to let Him. Because you didn't go through it without His knowledge and permission in the first place. Let Him handle it. If you don't think He can - you just might need to remember that God is who He says He is. I know it's a lesson of which I am reminded regularly.

Bibles, Bibles Everywhere!

I just want to share with you how blessed I am to have the living, active Word of the God of the Universe in my hands daily. Do you realize, according to this study there are 350,000,000 people who don't even have the Bible in their language? Do you know how blessed you are if you live in the United States where - not only do we have the Bible in our own language - we have over 23 translations of it in our language!

Unfortunately, American Christians are wasting this precious gift. Studies like this one show a disgraceful amount of Bible knowledge among those of us who call ourselves Christians. It goes so far as to state, shamefully for Christians, that "level of education was the best predictor of religious knowledge." This makes me sad for two reasons. First, "religion" is not what God seeks from us. A personal relationship with the God of Heaven is what He desires. Secondly, with such abundant access to God's Word, why do people of other faiths know more about what we believe than we do?

Let's examine my first point a little further. Make no mistake, God created us for His pleasure. He desires relationship and communication with us. He asks us to acknowledge the fact that we're helpless in our sinful state, turn from our sin, and follow Him. Allowing Him to be Lord of our lives. Simply stated, He wants us to desire to know Him. That means reading His Word and having conversation with Him every day. He does all the work, we just have to realize who He is and accept Him into our lives.

What I said above was simply stated, but not necessarily simple. Please do not mistake my message for one that promises ease, wealth and success once you start following the Lord. That is almost never the case. The road is narrow and it is downright hard on this earth. But trust me, the benefits far outweigh the cost. To be able to walk alongside the God who created heaven and earth both now and for all eternity is worth any cost I might face on this crazy planet!

On to my second point from above. With all the access American Christians have to the Bible, please explain to me why we're so woefully Bible illiterate. We have absolutely no excuse. Dear one, if you are a professing Christian and you have to blow the dust off your Bible before you leave for Sunday morning church, shame on you! Let me say that again - shame on you and shame on me for having periods of time where I've let God lose His place of priority in my life.

As disciples of Christ, we should be yearning to know more. Simply picking up our Bibles, opening them, and devoting some real time to the Lord will bless you more than you imagined. God has given us a counselor within us to teach us what He wants us to know from every single passage in Scripture. That counselor is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God in us. If we thought more about the fact that God is within us daily, I'll bet we'd crack open that precious book more often. There are a myriad assortment of resources to help you study your Bible. But much can come from simply reading, then sitting at the throne for awhile asking the Lord what He wants to teach you about Himself. If you choose to go deeper, I recommend this method for truly learning what the Scripture says rather than taking someone else's word for it.

I hope this post has challenged you as much as I was challenged while doing the research. One final thought. If you are a professing Christian but have no desire to learn more about your Lord, that should raise an alarm for you. Take that concern to the Lord and reason it out with Him. Be sure of your salvation, then follow Christ with vigor. Eternity awaits you. Don't trust in "I hope so" or "I think so." Be encouraged, disciple!

Clearly NOT a Yellow Brick Road

I've discovered that blogging is about as random as journaling is for me. Looks like it's been almost four months since I've had something profound enough to share on my mind. Trust me, I use the term profound very loosely.

So how have YOU been? I've been wrestling with many things in my heart concerning the Lord lately. I wish I could tell you I'm coming to you with incredible insight and clarity and God has just laid my path out for me so clearly I feel like Dorothy on the yellow brick road. But, the God of heaven and earth is simply not that clear most of the time.

And it's in those times that I've found God does the coolest work. You see, I'm not a naturally patient person - ask my husband, kids or mother. But I doubt many of us are because we're so hopelessly human. I like to have my answers my way and right now, thank you very much. And it would be really helpful if you'd just wrap them all up in a neat little bow, so I can be sure to know exactly where to find them.

But God in His sovereignty has MUCH bigger plans. You see, before He ever formed the earth He knew you and me. He knew that I would prefer to not have to wait too long for an answer and that I would trust way more in my plan B than I did Him. So He's given me one opportunity after another to learn to trust Him more. And it's in those waiting times that He teaches me the lessons I remember most. God doesn't just grab a ladle of grace and serve all the grace we need for our entire lives on earth in one big bowl. He gives us little teaspoons at a time. Each day we must go to Him and ask for the grace, strength, peace, you fill in the blank to make it through that minute, hour and day. Then the next day, we get to petition Him one more time.

God does this for us and for His pleasure. He knew that if He gave me all I needed and said "here, child, now don't spend it all in one place" that I'd screw up in two major ways. Number one - I'd waste my portion before I ever made it to my last day. And number two - I would never seek God's face because I'd think I didn't need Him anymore. God desires relationship and because He made us in His image, we need relationship, too. Who better to have a close, intimate relationship with than the one who holds everything in His hands??

These are the thoughts that have been encouraging me lately, and I hope they encourage you, too, sweet child of the King! I'd love to hear your personal comments on how God has blessed you by simply wanting a relationship with you. Leave a comment below and be encouraged!

Change You can take to Heaven's Bank

Wow, where do I start? First, I'll start by saying God is Faithful. I've been traveling along my journey in quietness with Him over the past few months. Many small changes have occurred in my life that have amounted to bigger blessings with Him. Isn't it interesting how God is constantly shaping, molding, pruning and making us just a little bit more like Him every minute of the day? And let me tell you, I am no easy vessel to mold!

Since my last post, I've fallen more deeply in love with my second-born. A strong-willed child that was very hard for me to love the first two years of his life. I can almost hear the gasp exiting your mouth right now as you read that sentence. But how are we to let God heal us if we're not honest with Him? And how is He to use us to touch others if we're pretending everything's okay when, clearly, they are not? So, since I know without a doubt that there are other moms and dads who've struggled to love or even like a child, I come to you with painful honesty. And I'm here to tell you - you're not alone and God IS Faithful and True and will answer your cry for help. You need only ask Him.

It took me awhile to see all the wonderful qualities in my incredibly frustrating child. And I felt horribly guilty because I didn't just adore my own child like I was "supposed" to. (Funny how society is very quick to tell us what to do, but falls woefully short of solutions to accomplish those insurmountable tasks, isn't it?) I'll just set you free from that load of bondage right now. Guilt is a tool from the pit of hell and Satan will use it against you in a mighty way - if you let him. Yes, I said let him. Satan has no power over a believer that we haven't first given him. (2 Corinthians 10:2-5)

I prayed for the first two years of my little one's life for God to change him. I knew I couldn't deal with a child "like that" for the rest of my life. I knew I would end up in the psychiatric ward at the local hospital. But then, through a wonderful message by a faithful member of our church, God revealed something to me. My son wasn't changing and I was just beating my head against a wall for nothing. God had answered my prayers and I hadn't even noticed. The answer was "No, child - this is for your good." And it is. God is changing me. And I am learning to accept the things that aren't changing and get my strength from the Lord.

That's change you can count on! God NEVER lets you down.

How Mad are You?

This post will be more of a rant than an actual post, I'm afraid. Lately I have been seeing so many stories put forth by the media that, as a Christian, just plain MAKE ME MAD! How has the average Christian become so, well, average? We are called to go against the tide to stand up for our Lord. Yet, most frequently, there's absolutely no difference between a person who calls themselves a Christian and one who completely denies Christ - except for where they spend their Sunday mornings (in bed or at "church"). Most "churches" these days have no reflection of the picture of God's Church as laid out in Acts Chapter 2.

I confess, until recently, I was as guilty as the next hypocrite. I went to a building to "do church" and was completely clueless what God's design for His church actually was. I thought "doing stuff" for God showed my love for Him and if I could just serve enough, God would know how I felt about Him. Sadly, I was dead wrong - spiritually dead. And I was tired.

The prevailing message in Christianity today is about "service." But the arrow is being pointed at either serving the wrong way - or, probably more specifically - serving the wrong One. True service to our Lord is not something we do, it's something we are. We don't serve the Lord to get something from Him. He's not our genie in a bottle. We serve Him out of our sheer love and devotion to Him for who He is not what He's done.

Certainly, we should praise Him for the good in our lives. But if we never receive one more blessing, we should serve Him simply because He's Lord. Period. I am jealous for a fresh awakening of the Church today. The Bride needs to be ever ready for the Bridegroom. And we need to add as many to the Kingdom as possible on the way. I am utterly convicted to share Jesus more. Every interaction I have with another human is an opportunity to reflect Christ and witness to His Gospel. I wonder - how many opportunities have I wasted? Maybe instead of getting mad at the media, I could get mad at Satan (the real enemy) enough to do something about it. Like share the Gospel with a lost soul. What a revolutionary thought.

Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes

My life has been reeling with activity the past few months. So I have grossly neglected my blog. Here's to new beginnings!

Lately, everywhere I turn I am presented with a message on prayer posture. So I thought I'd invite you to share in my conviction. :) There are many postures from which to choose when praying - standing, sitting, kneeling, lying face-down. There are also many things to do with your eyes. Close them, look down, look up. For me, it depends on the nature of the prayer how I present myself before the Almighty Throne.

I might sit with another brother or sister, holding hands or with my hand on their shoulder, head bowed, eyes closed for intercessory matters. I might kneel for burdensome matters that are heavy on my heart, bowed head and closed eyes. Sometimes the bowing needs to take place at an altar so you can leave the matter there symbolically. (There's just nothing like a sweet time at the altar, is there?) There are times when it's appropriate to stand, hands raised, with open eyes in praise and adoration, unashamed and expecting the Lord's presence.

Then, there are times when no prayer posture will do but to lie flat on the floor, face-down and REALLY do business with the Lord. Sometimes we simply cannot humble ourselves enough to make the particular request we wish to make. Or sometimes we need such a healing or cleansing from Jehovah that we must prostrate ourselves to avoid distraction and pride.

No matter your posture, prayer is key to a healthy relationship with the Father. All these postures represent a heart condition and all of them are needed. So often in my Faith Walk I have neglected to kneel or lie down out of laziness or pride. And in those times when I know my Father is leading me to take a specific position, yet I refuse, I also know I have missed the great blessing God was holding out for me. Did it change the effectiveness of my prayer? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But I know in my heart I could have received more from the Lord should I have obeyed Him in such a simple thing as my prayer posture.

I love the Lord with all my heart. I want the absolute best He has to offer me. Oh, that I might not get in His way with my pride or neglect. I'm not suggesting we be legalistic and have a planned position for each type of prayer we speak. But I am imploring you to walk closely enough with the Lord to hear Him whisper to you "Darlin' you need to bow right here" or "Child, fall on your face about this one."

What about you, saint? Have you missed an opportunity to honor your Lord with your prayer posture? It's certainly something I've been mulling over this week. Be blessed, sweet one!